Chapter 209

Eugene scratched his head and, looking around, stepped back to the edge and charged shoulder-first into the wall. But even a forceful approach didn't solve the problem. The stone wall still looked homogeneous and didn't seem to ever have been part of any neighboring wall, forming a single entity with it.

— So the manly approach of solving everything with force didn't work? — Olga clearly teased her husband.

— It was worth a try! — the man didn't seem discouraged.

They spent an hour creating stone rods that could be inserted into the holes in the walls. But this also yielded nothing. Either there was supposed to be a special key, or the door mechanism, if it was even a door, had long since broken.

— Shall we keep going or move on? — The warlord was tired of wandering around these strange walls. — Maybe we made a mistake? Dwarves aren't humans and they have a different logic, maybe everything is as it should be. Maybe we're in a temple, not a library, and these walls are monolithic.

— Anything is possible, but we still need to rest, so why not stop here?

— Fine, but we leave first thing in the morning. The goblins who fled the city when the enemy clan approached will soon return, and I'd prefer to avoid another battle like yesterday's.

Everyone nodded in agreement. The battle they had fought had its advantages. The massive army alone had driven away the goblin family that once lived in the city, so the vampires didn't have to roam the city with weapons drawn, killing its inhabitants. But this situation couldn't last forever.

The tribe would definitely want to reclaim their property, and discovering that it was occupied by only twenty people… They needed to hurry, especially since their expedition's goal had been achieved, the city of dwarves had been explored and sniffed out personally. There was a report to be made to the Council.

After setting up camp and having settled comfortably on the stone floor, having first warmed it, the triumvir approached the nearest niche and drove magical claws into the stone wall. By tearing out chunks of stone, he quickly made a hole. The stone slab did indeed conceal a room behind it. Smiling with satisfaction, Eugene informed the vampires of his discovery.

— The manly approach always works! — he said joyfully to his wife.

Olga chose to ignore her husband's words.

It was indeed a library. A dozen uncovered rooms revealed the same scene — stone shelves and dust on them, fragments in the dust indicated that there had once been books. The only valuable finds were the precious metals sometimes used for book covers.

— Shall we uncover everything, or is it time to stop the fun and go to sleep?

— I'd prefer to sleep, — Leonid said, yawning widely.

The man didn't want to sleep; energy was bubbling within him, but he planned to infect his companions with his yawning. Better to forget about archaeology for now, get a few hours of sleep, and leave these cursed caves. Unfortunately, his acting did not fool anyone.

— I'm going to dig around a bit more, — Eugene was adamant, though he had little idea what to do if the next uncovered room turned out to be packed with entire books, since no one had figured out the lock mechanism and everything would either have to be dragged out or left behind.

A satisfied squeal was heard. The vampires who had run up looked one by one into the hole that had been cut — among the dust lay a whole book. After quickly making the hole a bit wider, one of the vampire women crawled into the room and, carefully taking the book, passed it to the others. The cover had no illustrations or letters. Only two symbols were on the spine.

Eugene carefully placed the find on the floor and opened it to a random page. The ceiling was illuminated by magical radiance emanating from the open pages. Flipping through a few pages, the vampires discovered that each one contained its own magic. But once the book was closed, any manifestations of magic disappeared.

— This doesn't look like ordinary magical books, — Olga remarked, stating the obvious.

It was true. Archmage Godius, however weak he might have been, was still an archmage and had access to the best magical books. But all of them had a magical aura. This book did not. Which meant…

— Hold it up! — Eugene ordered.

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